1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a memory controller capable of outputting an auto refresh command and bank information in an auto refresh mode and a semiconductor device comprising the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As wireless applications are developed for portable devices, there is a need for processing large amounts of data in such devices. This results in an increased use of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) memory cells in portable devices.
In order to preserve data in a DRAM, a refresh operation is performed in a memory cell of the DRAM. Refresh operations, however, consume excess current and drain battery power in portable devices employing DRAMs. Thus, the DRAM memory cells are not commonly used in portable devices that use batteries such as mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), etc.
Methods for reducing the amount of current consumed during refresh operations have been studied in order to increase the lifetime of batteries in portable devices. However, when refresh operations employing such methods are performed in semiconductor devices having memory banks and/or cells, currents are unnecessarily consumed because each memory cell in the semiconductor device conducts the refresh operations.